Each week I scour articles, wading through the dogs, and bringing you the best insights to help product managers and innovators be heroes.

Top 4 missteps during a product manager interview – aka, how not to get the job. (1) Brainstorming small, (2) not asking questions, (3) trying to get the correct answer, and (4) ignoring tradeoffs. Read about each at https://hackernoon.com/four-ways-to-fail-your-pm-interview-904929443337

Constraints increase product management productivity. How many times do you have all the resources, time, and money you want for a project? If you did, chances are the project would suffer. Constraints provide focus and that is good. Read about how at http://www.pmpaul.com/constraints-product-manager-embrace/

Well-meaning idea generation that is not controlled and filtered leads to failure. To be more “innovative” organizations often create programs to generate ideas for product enhancements and new products. When the programs only result in ideas and not well-structured, filtered, and selected ideas, innovation stalls and the organization is likely to stall. Read how to avoid this at https://steveblank.com/2017/09/14/how-companies-strangle-innovation/

For innovation and success, “It’s OK to be wrong, it’s OK to make mistakes — it’s OK to fail.” Paul Misener, Amazon’s VP for global innovation shared those words in a recent keynote. The culture expressed in those words is a large part of what made Amazon successful – the ability to try something, learn from it, and get better. Important words for organizations that want to be innovative… http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-failure-innovation-2017-9

Why organizations are openly hostile to innovation yet say they need more of it. The state of innovation in organizations is getting better, but the general tone remains the same – we want more innovation but we also want things to remain unchanged. Same is the enemy of innovation. Read this author’s reflections on the situation after working with global companies that “said” they wanted more innovation… http://innovationexcellence.com/blog/2017/09/15/faux-innovation-and-other-discontents/

Aligning business strategy and innovation in organizations. One reason corporate innovation fails is because it does not deliver what executives expect, which is most often an increase in sales. Without aligning innovation efforts to strategic efforts, innovation will continue to struggle. Alignment is a challenge for most organization and it needs the attention of innovators. Read more at https://www.forbes.com/sites/strategyand/2017/09/20/welcoming-business-strategy-into-the-innovation-sandbox/#3b05f84afd15